Jewish Labor Committee

October 15, 2019 - Philadelphia, PA: The Philadelphia Jewish Labor Committee rallied in solidarity with Temple Association of University Professionals (TAUP) at its "ALL OUT: CONTRACT EXPIRATION RALLY" on the Temple University campus on October 15th, just hours before the labor contract for Temple University professionals, professors and adjuncts expired at midnight.
President of TAUP - and Philadelphia JLC Board member - Steve Newman addressed the crowd.

September 25, 2019 - New York, NY: The Jewish Labor Committee opposes the nomination of Eugene Scalia as U.S. Secretary of Labor to replace Alexander Acosta, who resigned last July.

A partner in the Washington, DC, law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Eugene Scalia has a long career defending corporate interests against American workers:

• He is most known for defending Walmart against a proposed Maryland State law that would have required the industry giant to pay a portion of its payroll toward health insurance for its employees or pay into the State’s Medicaid fund.


• He led the opposition to OSHA ergonomic rules that would have protected an estimated one million workers, calling studies on MSD (Musculoskeletal Disorder) “junk science.”


• Scalia is on the wrong side of the “wage theft” issue; he defended Wynn Las Vegas Casinos arguing that employers had the right to take employees’ tips and redistribute them to other workers, including supervisors.


• He is anti-union: Scalia defended Boeing in a lawsuit brought by the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of its workers in Washington State who were threatened with the company leaving the state if the workers did not meet its demands.


• When a trainer at Sea World was killed by an Orca whale, Scalia argued that the theme park was not required to follow Federal safety standards that might have prevented the tragic death.


• He helped reverse stricter transparency regulations that the Obama Administration had required of financial advisors who recommend investments for retirees.


• He lobbied against President Obama’s executive order requiring a minimum wage of $10.10 per hour for Federal contract workers.


• When President George W. Bush, in 2001, tried to appoint Eugene Scalia as the Labor Department official responsible for developing and implementing regulation procedures, the Senate refused to hold hearings due to his extreme anti-worker history. He was eventually made the Department of Labor’s chief lawyer via a recess appointment by President Bush, allowing him to serve in that position for one year.

by Michael Hersch

A central theme of the story of the Jewish people is liberation from slavery — the experience of being held against one’s will, forced to work in dehumanizing conditions, with no compensation for labor.

And, in many ways, history repeated itself when waves of Jewish immigrants arrived in the United States in the late 1800s.

Many found work in garment factories and workshops in large urban areas such as New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and elsewhere. The conditions there were deplorable and led to tragedies such as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which took the lives of 146 workers on March 11, 1911.

Most of the victims were young women, and many of them were Jewish immigrants. Although it was a relatively modern workplace, it was unsafe, and the workers trying to join the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union were not successful in an organizing drive two years earlier. Insufficient means of escape, a workplace higher than the tallest fire ladders of the day, a spark — and it went up in flames.

Recounting the details of this story, and the way in which this tragedy served as a catalyst for the organized labor movement in the U.S., and Jewish workers’ role in that movement, has practically become another Haggadah for progressive Jews.

And perhaps it is something that has been told so many times that we have become desensitized to it, much in the same way our peoples’ time in bondage in Egypt feels more like ”just a story,” rather than lived experience that we carry in our collective DNA. “Remember you were once slaves in Egypt” could be replaced with “Remember you were once poor immigrants working in dangerous sweatshops with no rights.”

Philadelphia JLC activists rallied alongside TAUP - Temple Association of University Professionals, outside of a meeting of Temple University’s Board of Trustees on June 9, 2019.

Continue reading "Have Jews Become Detached From Labor’s Goals?" »

by Ari Fertig

August 29, 2019 - Boston, MA: The fight for working people — for labor and against income inequality — is picking up steam.

Workers’ voices are being heard. Organized labor unions in the transportation sector are standing up. Teachers unions are being revitalized. Non-traditional walkouts at places like Google or Wayfair are increasingly common. Both the right and the left have strong populist movements and feel the need to appeal to working class voters.

If you keep your eyes open, the trend is clear. Now is the time for a revitalized labor movement — and Jews have to be a part of it. If Jews are to be true to their values, history, and law, then we must support labor rights for all.

To be true to ourselves, we have to remember where we came from. We must remember our Jewish history. In the mid-19th century, when many Jews started to arrive in the United States, most were workers. From the very beginning of the labor movement in America, Jews have played a pivotal role, be they in the garment industry, or in professions like cigar makers, bakers, printers, painters, or actors, or in labor leadership such as Samuel Gompers, a Jewish founder of the American Federation of Labor. The Forward was originally founded as a Yiddish-language daily socialist newspaper, and newspapers like these were critical to building the class consciousness of the Jewish people. The roots of the American-Jewish experience is tied to the fight for a better life—the fight for labor rights.

New England JLC activists and over 100 fast food, airport and other low-wage workers, and a wide range of community partners, joined in a march to the Massachusetts State House on April 4, 2017, to commemorate the 49th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and to support the ultimately successful campaign for higher wages, specifically the Fight for $15 bill in the legislature would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and for racial and economic equality.

Continue reading "This Labor Day, Jews Must Recommit To Workers’ Rights" »

by Stuart Appelbaum

On August 28, 1963, more than 200,000 Americans gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., for a political rally known as the "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom."

Under the leadership of A. Philip Randolph and with the civil rights leader Bayard Rustin as its principal organizer, this march, organized by a broad coalition of civil rights, labor, and religious groups, was one of the largest political demonstrations for human rights in the history of United States. It was designed to put the political, economic, and social discrimination suffered by African Americans squarely on the national agenda. The massive turnout, the dignity and discipline of its nonviolent plea for justice, and the grandeur of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech made it a key moment in the long struggle for civil rights. Part of its legacy was passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Of the many Jewish organizations that participated in the March, none brought more people to the event that day than the Jewish Labor Committee.

Image from The American Prospect

Continue reading "56 Years after the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom" »

(Jewish Labor Committee collection, Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives / Tamiment Library, New York University)

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August 16, 2019 - New York, NY: We mark the anniversary of the World Labor Athletic Carnival, held on August 15th and 16th at New York’s Randall’s Island, to protest the holding of the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany. The two-day event, organized by the Jewish Labor Committee with the active support and cooperation of a number of unions and labor bodies, brought over 400 athletes from across the United States to compete in what became known as the “Counter-Olympics.” Honorary co-chairs of the event included New York Governor Herbert Lehman, NYC Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, American Federation of Labor President William Green and Judge Jeremiah Mahoney, former President of the Amateur Athletics Union of the United States and a leader of the “Move the Olympics” movement, who resigned from the American Olympic Committee to protest holding of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Chairing the Labor Committee of the Carnival was Isidore Nagler, Vice President of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union.

Continue reading "1936: Anti-Nazi World Labor Athletic Carnival Held in New York City" »

JLC Calls on Prime Minister Netanyahu to Reverse Israeli Government's Decision

August 15, 2019: New York, NY -- The Jewish Labor Committee regards the recent decision of the Israeli Government to bar U.S. Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib a mistake, and calls on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reverse this decision.

Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Jewish Labor Committee, said that “while we do not share many of the views of these two members of Congress regarding Israel, members of the Congress of the United States should not be forbidden from entering Israel. Doing so,” he added, “only reflects badly on Israeli democracy when it accepts or rejects visitors based on their political views. This will also harm U.S. – Israel relations, and make support for Israel in the United States increasingly partisan, while it is in Israel’s interest for this to be very much a non-partisan issue.”

"We are convinced that not allowing them to visit the State of Israel undermines its reputation as an open and tolerant society.”

July 9, 2019: Philadelphia, PA - The Jewish Labor Committee rallied alongside TAUP - Temple Association of University Professionals, outside of a meeting of Temple University’s Board of Trustees. The Philadelphia JLC stands in solidarity with TAUP against:

* Decreasing numbers of tenured and tenure-track faculty;
* The removal of the grievability and arbitrability of discrimination from the contract;
* Merit-only raises;
* The administration setting the percentage rate for merit awards outside of the contract;
* Increases to healthcare premiums;
* Unprofessional working conditions for adjunct faculty;
* Unprofessional treatment of librarians;
* Unclear standards for merit;
* The administration’s lack of response to childcare and tuition remission proposals.

JLC Supports demands that Wayfair donate profits made by selling goods to operators of facilities running detention centers at the southern US border

June 26, 2019: New York, NY -- The Jewish Labor Committee supports the Wayfair workers who walked out of the company’s headquarters in Boston’s Copley Square today to protest the company’s decision to sell furniture to the operators of facilities for migrant children detained by the U.S. government at the southern border. Members of the New England JLC, led by Regional Director Ari Fertig, joined the walkout in solidarity with the Wayfair workers.

The Wayfair employees, outraged about the conditions facing children at the migrant detention centers, had presented a letter signed by 547 employees, to the Wayfair management. The letter called on the U.S. government to end “the detention and mistreatment of hundreds of thousands of migrants seeking asylum in our country.” Further, the employees’ letter stated, “we also want to make sure that Wayfair has no part in enabling, supporting, and profiting from this practice.”

Continue reading "We Support Wayfair Workers Walkout" »

June 19, 2019 - Ten progressive, pro-Israel organizations today called on House leadership to vote on and pass House Resolution 326, which reaffirms support for the two-state solution and opposes any US actions that would encourage or endorse unilateral Israeli annexations in the West Bank.

Continue reading "JLC joins with nine other progressive pro-Israel groups in urging House of Representatives leaders to pass resolution opposing West Bank annexation " »

The Jewish Labor Committee joins a range of Jewish communal organizations in condemning the unprincipled opportunism of Israel's Prime Minister in working to secure the participation of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party as part of the maneuverings leading up to the upcoming Israeli elections. Otzma Yehudit adheres to the racist policies of the late Meir Kahane. We specifically support the statement issued last week by eight kindred organizations -- Partners for Progressive Israel, Ameinu, Americans for Peace Now, J Street, the National Council of Jewish Women, the New Israel Fund, Reconstructing Judaism, and T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights -- and we join in their call on the American Jewish community to affirm that "Kahanists Have No Place In The Knesset."

Encouraged by additional statements from a range of groups within the United States as well as in Israel, we invite our members and friends to join us in this, and join with tens of thousands of Israelis who are working to keep Kahanists out of public life - by signing the online petition here: https://secure.nif.org/onlineactions/L2Bxc4DgMEGB0FwO7wLKDg2?ms=via_JLC

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February 22, 2019

This week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, keen to shore up his electoral position, orchestrated the unification of the extreme right-wing party Otzma Yehudit (“Jewish Power”) with the National Union so that it could enter the Knesset in a consolidated right-wing bloc. This is dangerous and deeply concerning. Otzma Yehudit is the latest iteration of a political party based on teachings of racist demagogue Meir Kahane.

For decades, the consensus in Israel was that these racist extremist organizations should have no place in the Knesset. We are outraged that right-wing political parties and their leadership have reversed course and opened the door for Kahanists to enter into the Israeli political mainstream.

Our organizations do not advocate for or against any candidate or party in any election. We stand together for the principles enshrined in Israel’s Declaration of Independence. Kahanism, empowered in government, represents a clear and present danger to those values.

Kahane’s party, Kach, was banned from the Knesset in 1988, was outlawed as a terrorist organization in Israel in 1994, and still appears on the US State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

Modern day Kahanists are working to divide Israeli society by stoking racial fears. They seek to strip all non-Jewish Israelis of basic rights; many encourage violence toward Arabs and LGBTQ Israelis. These Jewish supremacist organizations often use incitement to violence to promote their racist agenda. That’s why the US State Department, the EU and the Canadian government all list Kahanist organizations as terrorist groups.

Today's Kahanists have been convicted numerous times for support for terror organizations and incitement to racism. Michael Ben-Ari, a leader of Otzma Yehudit and candidate for Knesset, was denied a visa to enter the US due to the State Department's "prerogative to ban terrorists from entering the country."

As Americans, we have seen the devastating effects of elected officials embracing white nationalist groups. In America, deadly right-wing extremism poses a clear and present danger to our democratic society. In Israel, it is Kahanists -- and the political mainstream that embraces them -- that pose the most direct threat to Israel’s democratic fiber.

We call on our colleagues in the American Jewish community and Jewish organizations to stand for democracy and equality and join us in affirming that Kahanists have no place in the Knesset.

February 11, 2019: Washington, DC -- The Jewish Labor Committee (JLC) has secured the explicit endorsement for the Federal Minimum Wage to be raised to $15/hour from the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, at the JCPA's annual conference recently held in Washington, DC. The Jewish Labor Committee is a founding member organization of the JCPA.

The resolution - text below - updated a 2014 resolution that supported an increase in the Federal Minimum Wage to $10.10/hour.

The Jewish Labor Committee prepared the updated resolution, and submitted it with the co-sponsorship of a number of national and local Jewish agencies, including the National Council of Jewish Women, the Rabbinical Assembly (the international association of Conservative rabbis), the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, and the Union for Reform Judaism, plus four local bodies: the Community Relations Committee of the Jewish Federation of Nashville and Middle Tennessee, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Silicon Valley (Los Gatos CA), and the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation. All are affiliated with the JCPA.

The four-day annual conference, which ran from Feb. 9th through Feb. 12th, drew some 250 professionals and volunteers from across the United States; sessions reflected the range of policy issues being dealt with at the national and local level. JCPA, the national hub of the Jewish community relations network, represents 125 local Jewish community relations councils (JCRCs) and 17 national Jewish agencies, including organizations representing all four major denominations of religious Judaism.

Continue reading "National Jewish Umbrella Agency Calls for Increasing the Minimum Wage to $15 / Hour" »

January 10, 2019: New York, NY -- the letter below was just sent to all U.S. Senators.

Dear Senator,

We are deeply concerned that approximately 800,000 Federal Government employees are working without pay or temporarily furloughed because of the current government shutdown. A crisis not of their own making, this jeopardizes the livelihoods of their families and undermines the economic well-being of their communities, which rely on their steady paychecks -- as well as members of the broader public who depend upon their services.

We call on Senator Mitch McConnell to bring the Consolidated Appropriations Bill of 2019 to a vote without delay, and on all members of the Senate to rise above partisan concerns to support and vote in favor of this bill, ending this unconscionable interruption in the nation's business.

Stuart Appelbaum
President, Jewish Labor Committee

Ashley Adams
Co-chair, New England Jewish Labor Committee, Boston, MA

Margarita Aguilar
Secretary, Metro Labor Communications Council*, New York, NY

Marya Axner
Somerville, MA

Harlan Baker
Campus Representative, University of Southern Maine, Part Time
Faculty Association / AFT Local 4693*, Portland, ME

Rabbi Renee Bauer
Madison, WI

Rabbi Marjorie Berman
Clarks Summit, PA

Steve Eisenbach-Budner
Tivnu: Building Justice*, Portland, OR

Cantor Devorah Felder-Levy
Los Gatos, California

Rita Freedman
Silver Spring, MD

Joel Freedman
Silver Spring, MD

Rabbi Miriyam Glazer
Professor Emeritus of Literature, Communication and Media,
American Jewish University*, Los Angeles, CA

Rabbi Peter S. Knobel
Rabbi Emeritus, Beth Emet the Free Synagogue*, Evanston, Il

Avram Lyon
Morristown, NJ

Gail Malmgreen
New York Labor History Association*

Ivor R. Moskowitz
Delmar, NY

Gerald Newsome
Local 195 IFPTE*, Milltown, NJ

Carol Rosenblatt
Coalition of Labor Union Women*, Washington, DC

Donald Siegel
Boston, MA

Rabbi Brian Walt
West Tisbury, MA

Rabbi Simkha Y. Weintraub
Brooklyn, NY

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz
Uri L'Tzedek: Orthodox Social Justice*

* For identification purposes only